


Tale of Black Heart

by Blanska



Series: Black Heart - Pirates of Thedas [1]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pirate, Gen, Pirates, Slavery, Thedas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-29
Updated: 2015-08-29
Packaged: 2018-04-17 20:29:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4680284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blanska/pseuds/Blanska
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is the origin story of the pirate, Black Heart, inspired by slugette's Pirate AU ideas.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tale of Black Heart

Have you ever heard the tale about how Black Heart became a pirate? No? That’s actually good, since I would have told you about it anyway. His story began in the Fereldan city of Jader. He was no more than twenty years old, and in those days people only knew him as Ercan. He was a strong young man, and all the girls were crazy about his straight black hair, that went down to his waist. He and his two younger sisters, Lale and Özge were living on the family farm not far from the city. They were growing crops, raising livestock, and crafting simple things like baskets that they could sell in the market. Their life wasn’t easy, but they were hard working people, and they looked out for each other.   
  
One day the two sisters went to the city to sell their goods in the market and to buy some things that they couldn’t produce themselves, while Ercan remained at home doing hard work, mostly chopping wood for the winter. As the two girls were looking to buy some oil and salt, a merchant approached them. He came from the distant land of Rivain and offered to show the sisters exotic wonders from his homeland. Özge was fascinated by the merchant’s tales and begged Lale to let her take a look at his merchandise, for she was certain that this could be her last chance to see such exciting things. Lale loved her sister dearly and she couldn’t say no to her, so they followed the merchant into a warehouse, but as soon as they entered, strong men appeared, took hold of the sisters and put them in chains. 

Many people in Jader, especially who visited the market often, knew the two sisters by sight, and someone happened to recognize them as they were taken aboard of the Rivaini ship. They sent word to Ercan, who dropped everything when he heard the terrible news, and hurried to the dock, but by the time he had arrived, the ship was long gone. He needed to saave his sisters, but he didn’t even have a fishing boat let alone a real ship, and even if he did, he had no idea where the Rivaini ship was headed. He knew the solution to one of these problems, so he went to the nearest brothel and asked around, hoping that someone had the information he needed. One of the girls claimed to know where the ship was headed, and Ercan had to trade all of his coins for a sinlge name: Kirkwall. 

Now all he needed was a quick way to the City of Chains, and since he didn’t have a better idea, he offered to work for free on a merchant ship that was headed that way. However the captain of the ship didn’t need any more men, especially someone who doesn’t know how to sail, so he turned down the farmboy. Ercan didn’t give up so easily, so he decided to tell the captain exactly why he needs to go to Kirwall. The captain listened quietly for a long time, then he answered: _“I understand your situation better than you think, boy. Your quest is honorable, and rather insane. A farmboy defeating a whole crew of slavers? Or sneaking in and out with two sisters? It sounds impossible. All I can do for you is to take you to your destination and wish you luck.”_  
  
The captain kept his word and took Ercan to Kirkwall, asking for nothing in return only a bit of help for the ship’s cook. As soon as Ercan arrived at the docks, he began to look for the slavers’ ship, and when he had finally found it, he didn’t waste any time. He jumped into the water, swam to the stern, and climbed up to deck. There he saw a three slavers and without hesitation he attacked them. Two of his foes had daggers and one of them had a sword, but Ercan had no weapons and no skills to use them, but he had some experience in brawling. He fought them fiercely, tried to disarm his enemies as quickly as possible, and by the time the captain and the rest of the crew appeared, the three slavers were knocked out, and lying on the ground. The crewmembers all reached for their weapons, but before any of them could speak or make a move, Ercan adressed them with loud, confident voice: _“I offer a deal for you. You let go my two sisters and you can have me as a slave instead. I am strong, I can fight, I make a much valuable slave than the two of them.”_ The slaver captain liked the sound of that, he agreed to realease the sisters, and as soon as the girls were ashore, he chained Ercan and put him in the hold with the rest of the slaves.   
  
Days went by very slowly in the hold of the slavers’ ship. It was dark, filthy, and after every stop, there were new slaves and less space in their prison. Ercan feared what the future might hold. He hoped that they would have him do honest work like farming, but he could easily imagine terrible outsomes, that plagued his dreams for the next week. He wasn’t sure how many days had passed - he only noticed that the weather was getting a bit warmer - when they heard shouting from the deck, and the crew running in a great hurry. The captain was giving orders in an angry voice, and the ship began to gain speed rapidly. Ten minutes later she stopped, the slaves could hear fighting, which was over quickly, and then strangers entered the hold. They sent word back to the deck about the slaves, then led them upstairs. At first, Ercan was blinded by sunlight, but his eyes adjusted quickly. There was a tall battleship anchored next to them, the slavers were all on their knees, and pirates were guarding them or searching the ship for valuables. There was a black haired man barking orders, and another with a moustache, dressed in fancy white clothes, walking up and down near the slaver captain. When the man in white finished talking to his prisoner, he turned around and announced that he’s going to recruit five men to his crew and take all the slaves to Port Campana, where they can work as free men. He gave orders to his crew, and didn’t notice the slaver captain who was carefully rising to his feet, and when the right moment came dashed towards the pirate captain. But Ercan saw exactly what was happening and launched forward, tackling the slaver. The pirate crew didn’t seem to care much about what was going on and when his enemy reached for his knife, Ercan knew he had to end the fight, so he strangled the slaver with his chains.   
  
Captain Dorian made a favorable offer to the young man to recruit him into his pirate crew, and Ercan didn’t see a better option even after they arrived at Port Campana, so he joined the crew, and this is how Black Heart became pirate. Oh, but he was still far from being the infamous Black Heart, the Terror of Rialto Bay. He served on Captain Dorian’s ship for three years and he became a respected member of his crew. He wrote to his sisters as often as he was able, and sometimes even sent some gold back home to help out his family a little bit. After Lale and Özge had returned to the farm, they found it hard to get things back to normal with just the tow of them, they needed a thrid person, a strong person who could take on Ercan’s old responbilities. So Lale married a man, much older than herself, who didn’t care much for the sisters, but with his help they could work the farm and sell their goods once again. But as the years had passed, Lale’s letters to Ercan became more and more desperate. She complained about her husband very often, too often, and Ercan couldn’t take it anymore. He told Captain Dorian that he wished to go back to Jader and bring his two sisters to Port Campana, but the captain wouldn’t sail to the “freezing hell” for visiting family, and told Ercan that it was out of the question.   
  
I’m certain that you’ve already noticed that Ercan - or Black Heart - doesn’t give up so easily, especially if he thinks that his family is in danger. He couldn’t protect his sisters like that, with three seas between them and Ercan, and he couldn’t command Captain Dorian or his ship to make this journey for him. But what if he could command another ship? There was a man in Port Campana who was trying to become a captain for some time now, this wasn’t a well known fact, but Ercan was fortunate enough to hear about this information. The man’s name was Tiberio, and he was planning to replace his captain, but he utterly lacked the votes for it. Ercan offered him his help to make him popular amongst the crew, and get the needed votes, and in return he only asked that after Tiberio became captain, they would bring Lale and Özge to Port Campana. Tiberio agreed to his terms and promised to make him quartermaster after his victory. Ercan and his new ally worked hard, and after a few weeks they called for a vote, which Tiberio won easily this time. Captain Tiberio kept his word and sailed to Jader immediately.  
  
After they had arrived, Ercan hurried to the family farm, and faced the vile husband. He told him that he was taking his sisters away, but the husband protested since he couldn’t work the farm all alone. Ercan only needed to threaten the man with beating him up, and the husband quickly changed his mind. But when returned to the ship, he found that he was quartermaster no longer. While he was away Tiberio presented a fabricated tale about how Ercan fooled him and promised hidden treasures in Jader, but instead he came to settle personal matters. The captain called for a vote, and his story seemed to have convinced most of the crew. Ercan accepted his new job, and told them that replacing him was fair, but a few days later he challenged Tiberio to a duel for captainship. Tiberio had to accept the duel, because the crew was already suspecting foul play, so they landed on the first island that they spotted. The winner was supposed to be whoever drew the first blood, but the even after Tiberio was wounded, they didn’t stop fighting, and in the end Ercan killed his opponent. He took the ship as his own, named it “Two Sirens” and held onto his rank as captain, ruthlessly eliminating any challengers, which gained him the nickname “Black Heart”.   
  
Now you see, the notorious Black Heart wasn’t born a blood thirsty criminal. As far as I know, nobody was. His two sisters lived on Port Campana and were respected, even feared - most likely because of their brother’s reputation - and became powerful traders on the island. Black Heart’s and his sisters’ tale is far from over, but this is all what we had time for today. Maybe, you should come back later and see if I have more tales for you about the Terror of Rialto Bay.


End file.
